Everyone likes tio get wet on a hot summers day, and diving into some really cool looking pond may seem like a great idea, but there could be something nasty waiting o take advantage of your decision, so beware.

Going for a swim in fresh waters in the USA has proved fatal for at least two young people, both having falling victim to a bug that normally only affects one person in ten million, this parasite known as the brain-eating amoeba having claimed another young American victim, when 9 year-old Christian Strickland, from Henrico County in Virginia, died of meningitis on August 5, having contracted an infection after visiting an in-state fishing camp.

Health department officials confirmed that Naegleria fowleri was to blame, not so long after the young girl Courtney Nash, diving off a dock into the St. John’s River at her grandmother’s house in Florida, was also affected. Mother Patricia Nash said that her daughter had wanted to be n organ donor, so her death was not completely in vain, despite being devastating for the family

This deadly bacteria is usually to be found in warm, stagnant water, as well as in in freshwater ponds, rivers and lakes, entering the nasal passages before heading for the olfactory nerves, and on to brain tissue, which it devours. Symptoms of having been affected can include stiff neck and a frontal head-ache, as well as nausea, and the bug causes meningitis nearly every time, so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Have stated.

.Between 2001 and 2010, 32 such infections were reported in the U.S , almost all deadly, including two children Phoenix in 2002, from the domestic water supply. Christian died from amoebic meningoencephalitis, having, a week after his fishing trip ended, begun to experience tell-tale symptoms, exactly the same as happened with 16 year-old Courtney.

Signs have gone up in many public freshwater areas in the US now , informing people that the organism is there, proliferating and growing in the hot summer months., and that wearing nose clips will reduce the risk, though avoiding freshwater ponds and streams, especially stagnant ones, is the best option. Even though the chances of catching this bug are vanishingly small, it is nonetheless a very real danger, and all who love going for an outdoor dip need to take note.

If you have to swim outdoors, do it in waters that are fresh, and preferably running, to minimize the dangers, because the bug does not like running water, even slow-moving bodies of water. This is far from a pleasant way to go, and not easily treatable if not caught in the early stages, so if you want to avoid your brain being eaten by bugs, beware where you elect to go for that refreshing outdoor swim.